University of Tennessee Health Science Center's BLUES Project seeks to reduce infant mortality rates

photo Infant_Mortality
photo With her 2-year-old daughter, Stella Drury, on her back, Lindsey Drury talks with WIC nutritionist Jennifer Scanlan de Salmeron from the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department, right, as she attends a health fair at the Brainerd Complex on Thursday.
photo Expectant mothers Ashley Harris and Rishunda Bryant, right, talk with Melody Chambers, left, of Signal Centers as they attend a health fair at the Brainerd Complex on Thursday.

Infant Mortality Rate by Race in Hamilton County2003Black: 24.11White: 7.25Total: 11.672013Black: 11.7White: 5.3Total: 6.7* Number of deaths per 1,000 live birthsSource: Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department

Donna Sims quit smoking when she found out that she was pregnant at age 16.

"I knew I had to take care of myself so that I could take care of my baby," she said.

Sims had been raising herself since she was 12, and described life as a single mother as "hard, and poor."

She said finding out that she was going to have a baby made her quit a lot of things.

"You've got to work hard to raise a baby right," she said.

Sitting on the bleachers in the gym of the Brainerd Youth and Family Center on Thursday afternoon, Sims played with one of her four granddaughters, smiling as she looked out at the crowd attending the BLUES Project's baby shower and health fair.

"See, I never had support like this," Sims said. "This reminds young mothers that they're not alone like I was."

The BLUES Project - short for Building Lasting Unshakable Expectations into Successes - is a community outreach and research project of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. It provides education, counseling and social support to mothers during pregnancy and until the child's second birthday. The project is actively working to reduce the rate of infant mortality in Hamilton County.

Infant mortality - the rate of babies who die before their first birthday - has been a chronic problem in Tennessee and in Hamilton County. A gauge of the overall health of a community, the infant mortality rate in some Chattanooga neighborhoods compares to that of some developing nations, such as Romania or Mexico.

Hamilton County's infant mortality rate has decreased in the last decade - 2013's overall rate of 6.7 per 1,000 live births is about half 2003's rate of 11.67.

Erricka Hill, program coordinator for the BLUES Project, attributed the drop to heightened awareness in Chattanooga.

"Infant mortality can be prevented," Hill said. She believes Chattanooga can reach the national average of infant mortality, which in 2010 was 6.15 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But in Hamilton County, and across the state, a disturbing racial disparity exists. The county's infant mortality rate for whites in 2013 was 5.3 per 1,000 live births. The rate for blacks was more than double that, at 11.7 per 1,000 live births.

Hill said this disparity is "our current reality," and that the BLUES Project wants to see the infant mortality rate reach the national average in each ethnicity represented in Hamilton County.

The infant mortality rate is important to watch because the health of pregnant women and young children will have direct impacts on the future of education, the economy and crime, says Dr. Linda Moses-Simmons, principal investigator of the BLUES Project.

"If any one part of your body is not healthy, you are not well," she said. "So if any part of your community is not healthy, your community is not well."

Moses-Simmons, an assistant professor in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, said these issues are better taken care of now, rather than 10 or 20 years down the road.

Better education and treatment for mothers - especially for those living in poverty - will result in better educated and healthier students, she said.

"All of that puts them in a place where they can contribute to the community," Moses-Simmons said, "and not be dependent on the community to care for them."

Plus, illness during pregnancy or shortly after birth is expensive to treat. Infant mortality rates are linked with low birth weights and pre-term births. Moses-Simmons said the United States spends more than $25 billion each year on health care related to premature birth and infant mortality.

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Shelby Davis, a junior at Central High School, learned about infant mortality through Girls Inc.

Davis has worked with IMPACT, the Infant Mortality Public Awareness Campaign for Tennessee, for a year to help raise awareness. She said most people her age do not know what infant mortality is or how it can be prevented.

"I want girls my age to know that we need to take precautions to prevent infant mortality," Davis said.

Combating infant mortality requires better care and education both during pregnancy and during a child's first months of life.

"Both sides factor in," said Lisa Vincent, who works on infant mortality prevention efforts at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department. "The health of the mother before she even becomes pregnant has a great impact on how healthy her pregnancy is going to be and the health of her baby once she delivers."

For expecting and new mothers, the health department's various programs target smoking cessation, nutrition education and access to prenatal care. Vincent said even things like learning the proper ways for infants to sleep - alone, on their backs, in a crib - can help curb infant deaths.

Poverty, drug abuse and shaken baby syndrome also affect mortality rates, but all can be fought with awareness and education, according to Hill.

Sims said events like the BLUES Project's baby shower provide information and services that help young mothers.

More than 90 vendors, ranging from representatives of the health department and Virginia College to local grocery stores, attended the shower.

Hill had hoped at least 75 mothers and their family members would attend, but by 2 p.m. more than 150 people had attended and hours remained before the shower ended.

Sims was there with her pregnant daughter. As they pushed a stroller around the gym, looking at the different vendors, she was encouraged by the resources available for her daughter.

"I didn't have these when I was raising children," she said. "I hope that girls see that they have help, and then they pass that help on."

Contact staff writer Kendi Anderson at kendi.anderson@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6592.

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